This study was aimed to establish a standard protocol and to quantitatively assess the reliability of harmonics analysis of the radial pulse wave measured by Harmonic wave analyzer-TD01C system. Both intra-observer and inter-observer assessments was conducted to investigate whether the value of harmonics are stable in successive measurements. Intraclass correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman plot was used for this purpose. Twenty-two subjects (mean age 45±14 years; 14 males and 8 females) were enrolled for the reliability assessments of intra-observer and of inter-observer. The first eleven harmonics of the radial pulse wave presented excellent repeatability (Intraclass correlation coefficients, ICCs>0.9, p<0.001) for intra-observer assessment and high reproducibility (ICCs range from 0.83-0.96, p<0.001) for inter-observer assessment. Bland-Altman plot indicated that more than 90% of harmonic values fell within two standard deviations of the mean difference. Thus, we concluded that harmonics analysis of the radial pulse wave using TD01C system is a feasible and reliable method to assess hemodynamic characteristic in clinical trial.
